© 2016 Normand Laperle, Robert Cadieux, Réal Demers, Jean-Claude Lafrenière
© 2016 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Editor’s note
Normand Laperle
Lévis
Réflectivité is a voluntary contribution newsletter. We do not have a dedicated journalist who goes out and reports the news. We do not have a dedicated specialist to develop and delve into selected topics. The articles come from you, from each of you. It is a fragile business concept. But the fact that this concept has been working for 34 years now (since 1982) proves that it is viable.
What is the use of a bulletin like Réflectivité? Without Réflectivité, we are not far from “every man for himself”. Réflectivité exerts a cohesive force: It creates a feeling of belonging and solidarity. It leads to a feeling of brotherhood and love.
Over time, we quickly realize that, deep down, we are all traveling the same path. The vast majority of us are going in the same “direction.” Sooner or later, we all go through the same trials and realizations. For this reason, we benefit from sharing what we are with others.
Réflectivité is a place of sharing. In doing so, it is the reflection of the soul of our community of readers of the “Urantia Book”. This community evolves, it advances. Réflectivité is the reflection of our inner and spiritual lives: our quests for meaning, our hopes, our ways of being and our relationships with God.
The Urantia Book is a book that transforms lives. Each of us can testify to this. It changes our way of being and living. From there, we become, in spite of ourselves, role models, teachers and leaders. We influence the people around us by testifying to the human being that we are and what we live.
The strength of a group lies in the diversity of its resources. In sharing, this strength is multiplied. A small gesture can sometimes make a big difference. We need your sharing.
¶ Michael’s party
Robert Cadieux,
Montreal
We gathered once again for a picnic on Mount Royal to celebrate the birth of Jesus who was born on August 21, year — 7 at noon, 2022 years ago. The meeting was scheduled for 11:30 am.
There weren’t many of us, because the forecast was for rain and it arrived quite early around 12:30. Still, we had a great meeting with great people. We came to celebrate, eat, have fun, chat and sing.
In 2013, at Angrignon Park, we started singing with Guy Vachon.
At the end of the week, I had prepared a musical interlude that didn’t happen because we found ourselves inside the mountain chalet quite early. It was a bit noisy and not really the place to sing together; unless we were alone, which wasn’t the case. Also, our two musician friends—Michel Robidoux on guitar and Philippe Pillette on accordion—couldn’t be there.
Life is grand and perhaps we are hardly aware of it, because we perceive little of the true spiritual realities. However, through faith and conscious awareness of the ministry of the spirit within us, we can become aware of it.
I think it is partly this religious feeling that motivates us to come together, to be together on an occasion like today’s picnic.
Physical death will only be the end of a first stage, of an endless career.
This is part of what Jesus came to teach us by coming to live human life himself in the likeness of a physical body.
He came to teach us the consciousness of God in the evolution of human life and the pursuit of life in the universal career.
Ultimately, we are here in our human life to develop our God consciousness. And God, who is everywhere and in Paradise, is also present within us. It is with this divine presence, our Thought Adjuster, that we are destined to merge and thus become an ascending universe personality. In the meantime, as humans living in a physical body here on earth, we are sons and daughters of God by faith—this is the prelude to our union with God.
How lucky we are. We live here (in Quebec), on the earth, in a part of the world at peace knowing that there are many problems elsewhere. These problems are still linked to power struggles and religion. The religious feeling that is very present in human beings leads them to create religions and to convince everyone that they should think the same way and have the same beliefs.
It is not easy to seek and find the truth in the tumult. Yet we know that the truth exists and that it must guide us.
Today is the birthday of Jesus who is the representative of peace. When he appeared to us, his first words were: “Peace be with you.”
¶ Next theme
Normand Laperle
Lévis
Start preparing for the next theme which will take place on Sunday, October 16, 2016, in Drummondville. The theme will be “Service”.
Are you comfortable with this topic? If I asked you to write an article for Réflectivité on the subject, how would you develop it? Or, if I asked you to prepare a short 10-15 minute speech on the subject, what would you talk about?
Do the exercise. Sit in front of a blank page… and write only the points to be developed. I am not asking you to write an article or prepare a speech for real, but by doing this exercise you will discover where you are personally in relation to this theme. When you come to the theme, you will have a part of the journey done. You will have ideas to share. You will be much more attentive and receptive to what others will share, and thus enrich our perception.
Each person has a different and unique life “journey”; therefore, each person’s “sharing” is also different.
Come share with us, your person.
“The highest levels of self-realization are attained by worship and service.” (UB 140:4.6)
¶ Second letter: “The gift of oneself as a gift”
Real Demers
Laval
[Continued from: “First love letter from a grandfather to his children and his grandchildren who have grown up” published in Réflectivité #297, July 2016]
In a first letter, I explained to you that my words are addressed to each person who reads them because of this fraternal bond which connects us all to the infinite Being, the Cause without cause, the Father of all fathers and even if this is still unknown to many, the Mother of all mothers.
The role of Father in the Source of all things is easily recognized, but it should be added that, according to Maurice Zundel, “all that there is of tenderness in the hearts of mothers is only the distant echo of the infinitely maternal tenderness” which emanates from him, because, directly or indirectly, he is the sum of all life, of all communion in being and of all expression in action.
This Father-Mother God is surely more than that, but it is the only thing about him that we can begin to understand through our personal experience. Indeed, reality is only accessible to us through our abilities to perceive it, but we can easily think that it is always more than we perceive.
As an example, the reality of the colours of the rainbow only makes sense to us who perceive colours, while a great multitude of our animal brothers and sisters suspect nothing of it due to a lack of vision; and yet, perceived or not, the colour is there; it is certainly the same for everything that escapes our limited senses and our understanding dependent on our capacities to perceive the sensible world.
The feeling of brotherhood that emerges from this common parental deity pushes us to welcome the other; this is how I come to address you in all the simplicity of my heart, seeking to communicate to you the beauty that I see in life, admitting that the little beauty that I perceive is only a pale reflection of the real Beauty that watches over us all.
The only place where you can write beautiful things is in people’s hearts, because only humans take with them the beautiful things of the past. Everywhere else, the wear and tear of time does its work, while in people’s hearts, an idea grows if you take care of it.
Moreover, it is with the ink of love that the most beautiful things are written: these ideas persist, grow, take on beauty and spread in contagion from one to another. A writing is then like a message in a bottle that only delivers its message when someone finds it, a message that, like a seed, awaits fertile soil to return to life a hundred times over.
I did not expect to begin my letter in this way. You could say that it is a cry from the heart, an hors d’oeuvre, something to whet the appetite for the main course that I have been preparing for several weeks now.
In this time of preparation for the upcoming Christmas celebration, when everyone is more inclined to take care of their loved ones, I thought I would offer you my thoughts on the value of a gift given, on the way to give it, on the importance of the fraternal communion that accompanies this activity. The quotes in this text are taken from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran.
“You give, but very little of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you really give.” Even children, who know little of the things of life, know that a moment of attention is worth more than a mere gift, for attention is like a cloak large enough to envelop two people in one warm area. The gift of one’s possessions is not enough, even if they are material necessities such as shelter, food, and clothing.
The attention given in giving the gift includes the gift and an aura of happiness that fills the surrounding air. This human presence is necessary to give value to the gift and make the receiver and the giver happy.
But giving is not always done for the best reasons; one may give “to arouse gratitude and this secret desire perverts these gifts”; some may also give “in joy and this joy is their reward”; some others “give in pain and this pain is their baptism”.
It begins to be good when one is one of “those who give little, but give it all. They believe in the existence and generosity of life, and their bottom is never empty” and it is really good when one is one of those who “give like the myrtle [which] exhales its aroma in the space of the valley”; these latter give to the limit of their means with the sole concern of helping others. Thus “God speaks through the hands of such beings and, behind their eyes, smiles at the Earth”.
When the gift is made in a disinterested manner, with the sole aim of satisfying the need of the other, a feeling of gratitude is then established on the part of the one who receives towards his benefactor for the help he brings him or the pleasure he gives him and on the part of the one who gives towards his protégé, because in this way he becomes aware of the place he occupies in the long chain of donors which comes from time immemorial to him and which will perhaps continue through the one who receives, becoming, in turn, a future donor.
You should know that it is impossible to owe nothing to anyone, because in reality it is more true to say that you owe everything to everyone.
When we look more closely, however, it is more correct to say that we owe almost everything to a multitude of people. First of all, we owe our lives to all our personal ancestors, then we owe our material and social living conditions to the evolution of human contacts in the history of all those who can be collectively called “our people.”
We live our lives like a fish, moving in our great social river limited by its banks and filled with water that comes from its long history of the past. Upstream is the past up to the stream of the first humans, downstream is the future still unknown, but which continues its march along the ever wider banks.
It must be added that the fish is a prisoner of these limits and of the contents of the waters in which it bathes, while for us, these limits and this content, at the same time as we are forced to do so, can be modified to make the future a wide, calm river that has left far behind the social upheavals experienced in fear and where the muddy waters of the past have been decanted, losing their dirt and retaining only their crystalline purity.
We are thus at the same time prisoners of social conventions and agents of change for future generations. This work of change consists of dressing in dreams what is lacking in reality and, with patience, making part of this dream real.
Perhaps it is the time of year that prompts me to speak in this way, the approach of Christmas and all that it contains of religion. This celebration represents the return to summer with the days that slowly lengthen, the evocation of the birth of a little child, the hope of better days with an improvement in gestures of fraternity between humans.
This celebration, bearer of dreams, pushes us to realize some of them, encourages us to furnish our hearts to offer a warm nest to life that seeks to flourish. I wish you this celebration to be fruitful in every possible way, this is what I can wish you, in the manner of a grandfather, the most beautiful.
Real, December 2011
¶ A Urantian Culture
Jean-Claude Lafreniere
Saint-Andre-Avellin, QC
[During the theme in Drummondville on May 14, 2016, Jean-Claude sang us his personal compositions inspired by the “Urantia Book”. On page 3 of the June 2016 Réflectivité, he tells us about his experience in more detail, which I summarize here.]
One night I find myself humming a tune, and words from The Urantia Book slip in pleasantly.
I stand up to write down the flow of words that naturally fit into the tune I have in my head.
The texts based on well-known tunes, or almost, would allow everyone to sing them, to make them their own.
So here is my next composition:
I hesitated at first to accept this text. It seemed to me that I was emphasizing too much the lamentable state of our human condition: misfortune, divorce, questionable justice, …
A few positive allusions - freedom, responsibility, evolution, experimentation, perfection, the afterlife - finally prompted me, like my friend Denise, to appreciate this version, as well as the rhythm of this melody, appreciated by these ladies…
To the tune of: “Why the world is without love”
- a) Why is the world upside down? —
Why so much misfortune on earth?
We can no longer be satisfied.
Of his solitary happiness.
With freedom rhymes responsibility —
In common and in private: the truth! - b) The little family, its little job, —
We scatter, head to hat.
And the divorce soon forces us, —
To start all over again.
The ratios between men and women are unbalanced: —
It’s the strongest pocket: well done! - c) Why trade one’s freedom, —
For a little security.
Slave of society, —
Take the edge, privacy.
This is evolution in experiments —
To reach the bottom, to perfection. - d) Why, then, does God not intervene, — in each of these cases.
When things are going well, we don’t think about it —
It takes misfortune to bring us into line.
But the Book says, that all this will pass —
and that we will meet again, in the afterlife.
¶ Thematic
Sunday October 16 2016 (10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m.), you are invited to Drummondville for a theme.
Theme: “Service”
Hotel le Dauphin, 600 Boulevard Saint-Joseph, Drummondville, QC, J2C-2CI
Looking forward to meeting you in large numbers.
¶ STUDY GROUPS
This activity allows several readers of different levels of understanding to share and study together the teachings of The Urantia Book. It promotes spiritual progress by allowing its participants to find practical applications of the teachings of The Urantia Book in their daily lives. This important practice helps to maintain a broad perspective on concepts of truth.
You wish to participate or form a study group; we will be happy to assist you. If you wish to have your study group appear in this list, contact the person in charge, via email association.urantia.quebec@gmail.com or at 450-565-3323.
Outaouais Group
Gatineau Region
Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Maurice Migneault:
(613) 789-6833
Group : “Étoile du Soir”
Laurentides Region
Wednesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Carmen Charland: (450) 553-3601
Group : “Le Pont”
Montreal South Shore Region
Thursdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Guy Vachon: (450) 465-7049
Sherbrooke Group
Sherbrooke Region
Every 2 weeks: Tuesdays or Wednesdays (to be confirmed) from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Hélène Boisvenue and Denis Gravelle Tel.: (819) 569-6416
Group: “The Ascendants”
Quebec South Shore Region
Every 2 weeks: Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Guy Le Blanc: (418) 886-2366
Group : “Laurantia”
Petite Nation region in Outaouais
Sundays from 9:00 a.m.
Denise Charron & Jean-Claude Lafrenière Tel: (819) 983-2113
Group: “Fraternité-Urantia”
Lanaudière region
Wednesdays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Richard Landry & Gisèle Boisjoly Tel: (450) 589-6922
Group: “The United Family of Urantia”
Montreal Region
Tuesdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Ms. Diane Labrecque: (514) 277-2308
Group : “Les Débonnaires”
Terrebonne Region
Every 2 weeks: Thursdays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Julien Audet: (514) 315-9871
Group: “Découverte”
Laurentides Region
Mondays from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Gaétan Charland and Line St-Pierre
Tel.: (450) 565-3323
Group : “Vers les Sommets”
Ormstown & Valleyfield Regions
Fridays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Louise Sauvé: (450) 829-3631
Group: “Readers of Mauricie”
Trois-Rivières Region
Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Roger Périgny: (819) 379-5768
Group: “At Maisonia”
Quebec Region
Every 2 weeks: Sundays from 1:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Gilles Bertrand & Louise Renaud:
(418) 871-4564
¶ Réflectivité
Responsible: Normand Laperle (418) 835-1809
Assisted by: Gilles Bertrand. (418) 871-4564
Publication (monthly)
In the first week of the month.
To send us your articles and/or contact us:
reflectivite.auq@gmail.com
Add: Your name and city of residence.